What does it look like to read the texts we now call the gospels like first and second century readers? There is no evidence of someone regarding the gospel as a book published by an author until the end of the second century. So, put differently, what does it mean to read the gospels "beforethe book"? For centuries, the ways people talk about the gospels has been shaped by later ideas that have more to do with the printing press and modern notions of the author than ancient writing and reading practices. In TITLE, Matthew Larsen challenges several subtle yet problematic assumptionsabout authors, books, and publication at work in early Christian studies. He then explores a host of under-apprepriated elements of ancient textual culture such as unfinished texts, accidental publication, post-publication revision, and multiple authorized versions of the same work. Turning to thegospels, he argues the earliest readers and users of the text we now call the Gospel of Mark treated it not as a book published by an author, but as an unfinished, open, and fluid collection of notes (hypomnmata). In such a scenario, the Gospel of Matthew would not be regarded as a separate bookpublished by a different author, but as a continuation of the same unfinished gospel tradition. Similarly, it is not the case that, of the five different endings in the textual tradition, one is "right" and the others are "wrong." Rather each represents its own effort to fill up what some perceivedto be lacking in the Gospel of Mark. Larsen offers a new methodological framework for future scholarship on early Christian gospels. | Gospels Before the Book by Matthew Larsen, Hardcover | Indigo Chapters